Happy Father's Day, Dad
by Murdock Calavicci
Summary: After a mission ends with his men injured, Hannibal begins to wonder if they would be better off without him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story is kind of a twist of It's a Wonderful Life. It was supposed to be a one-shot, but it kept growing! :)**

The plan had come together. Sort of. The end goal of catching the bad guys had been met. But having three injured men definitely wasn't part of the plan.

Hannibal sat in the chair in the hotel room. Face and Murdock were in one bed, and BA was in the other. Hannibal wasn't exactly sure what had gone wrong with his plan. But somehow, his men had ended up hanging off the edge of a cliff. They weren't hurt too bad, mainly scrapes and bruises. Nothing life threatening. Hannibal had ordered them to rest and there hadn't been any argument.

Hannibal leaned back in his chair, glancing at the card Murdock had given him. It was a Father's Day card signed by the three of them. He really appreciated it, but at times like this, when they were hurt because of his plans, he really wondered if they would be better off without him.

"They would be better off if they had their real dads instead of me."

A sudden light momentarily blinded him. He blinked hard as he jumped up and reached for his gun.

"It's not there."

Hannibal froze. "Who are you?"

"Someone who wants to help you."

"Oh, really? How exactly do you expect to do that?" He continued to try to find his gun. He had left it right beside him! Where was it?

"I want to show something to you."

Hannibal gasped as he felt himself be picked up. "Face! Murdock! BA!"

"They can't hear you. Now, come with me."

"What have you done to my men?!'

"Nothing. You see, time has stopped. When you return, it will be as if you never left to them."

"Return? I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't travel with people who won't even show their face to me."

"You have no need to see me. Now, come."

Whatever the voice was carried him out of the room.

.


	2. Chapter 2

Hannibal felt his feet touch the ground again. The light vanished slowly, allowing his eyes to adjust. He looked around at a jail cell.

"Why are we here?"

The voice that seemed to come from everywhere, yet at the same time, be only in his head, answered. "You believe your men would be better off if they had their real dads instead of you, is that correct?"

"Don't you think so? I keep sending them on missions that gets them hurt!"

"You're getting a rare chance. A chance to see what your men's lives would be like if they were not with you."

Hannibal was about to make a comment when he heard someone shouting profanities.

"Face?"

He ran down the corridor and stopped at the cell holding his lieutenant.

"Face? It's me, Hannibal!"

Face looked at him in disgust. "What are you talking about, old man? I think you got lost on your way to the looney bin!"

Up till now, Hannibal hadn't really believed the voice's crazy tale, but now he believed it! "Face, don't you know me?"

"Why do you keep calling me that? It's Richard!"

"Richard?"

Face, er, rather Richard, rolled his eyes. "For someone who thinks he knows me, you don't even know my name!"

Hannibal searched his mind. He thought he knew all of Face's former names, but he didn't remember Richard ever being one of them. "Richard, does the name Templeton Peck mean anything to you?"

Richard thought for a moment. "No. Should it?"

At that moment, a guard walked up to the cell. "Come on, Bancroft. Trial time."

Richard groaned. "Why the hell do they bother with a trial? Everybody knows they're going tie me to that robbery. My name alone will give me the guilty verdict."

Hannibal watched Richard be cuffed and led away. He turned to another guard. "What'd he do?"

"Knocked off a priest. Man swears he's innocent. And honestly, all the evidence points to it being a frame. But being the son of AJ Bancroft, he's not going to get off very easy."

"AJ Bancroft?! He's Bancroft's son?!"

"Yep. Feel kinda sorry for him, to be honest. His old man had him working rackets before he was in school. When he graduated college, he claimed to turn over a new leaf. Had been going straight ever since then. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if this whole thing was set up by Bancroft to get rid of the kid."

"If evidence points to him being innocent, why is he so sure he'll get a guilty verdict?"

"Because AJ Bancroft is his old man. Everyone knows the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And being Bancroft's son, if he really was going straight, I wouldn't be surprised if this sends him back to rippin' people off! Not like he had a great example of how to live."

Hannibal couldn't take any more. He tried to run after Face, but suddenly everything was gone again. He squinted once more against the blinding light.

"Hey! Whoever or whatever you are, tell me what happens to Face!"

"Richard Bancroft is sentenced to fifty years for the murder of a priest named Father Maghill. During his third year in prison, he's found in the laundry room, strangled by another inmate."

Hannibal threw his arms around, trying to find something to hit. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Anger won't change the way things are."

"No, but it'll make me feel better!"

"Momentarily only. Even if I had a physical form to present to you, a few punches are not going to change Richard's life."

"Face! His name is Face! Templeton Peck!"

"No. You see, you wanted him to have his real dad. He was never left at the orphanage. He never changed names. He never joined the army. He never met you."

Hannibal stopped fighting. "Change it back. Please. I can't stand for Face's life to be like this!"

"Not yet. First, we will visit another of your men."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Does it ever say in the show what happened to BA's dad? I couldn't remember if it did.**

When the light vanished again, Hannibal found himself standing in a cemetery. He recognized it.

"This is where BA's dad is."

He looked around. Expecting to see BA. Instead he saw Mrs. Baracus. She was carrying a small bouquet of flowers.

"Hi, Mrs. Baracus!"

Mrs. Baracus stopped and glared at him. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

Hannibal was surprised at the anger in her voice. "My name is Hannibal. I, well, I knew your son at one time."

This seemed to be a good answer. Mrs. Baracus smiled. "Then you're here to visit him?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then you can follow me. I'm going to see him, too."

Hannibal expected her to head back out of the cemetery. Instead she kept walking down the rows of headstones. Hannibal followed, now terrified of what he would see.

Mrs. Baracus stopped in front of a small stone and laid the flowers she had brought gently on top of it. Hannibal struggled to keep from crying when he read the stone. According to what was written in it, Bosco Albert Baracus had died when he was twenty-five.

"How did you know him? Did you meet at the youth center? You must have been one of the volunteers."

"Yes, ma'am," Hannibal lied.

Mrs. Baracus smiled fondly. "He was a good boy. I just wish that he had been less weak."

Hannibal wasn't sure what she meant by that. "How did it happen? If that's too personal of a question, you don't have to answer it."

She continued to smile, but now the smile was sad. "He was always a bit of a scaredy cat."

Hannibal smiled at her, while his mind tried to imagine BA being afraid. He had never seen BA afraid. Except of flying.

"He was always helping the neighborhood children."

"Yeah, he was good with kids."

"One day, the guys who came for the protection money decided that Scooter needed to pay extra for the protection of the kids, too. He would have paid willingly, if he had the money. But the men weren't patient. When he couldn't come up with all the money in a week, they shot him."

Mrs. Baracus started crying. Hannibal held her in his arms, now crying, too. What had happened? Why had BA been pushed around like that?

Suddenly everything was gone again. Hannibal didn't even bother to wipe the tears from his eyes. "Why?!"

"Mr. Baracus was never a strong willed man. He let others tell him what to do. And his son learned to be the same way. You see, in the original history, BA only became tough and strong after his father was nearly beaten to death. That didn't happen this time. So, BA never joined the army. He never met you."

"Change it back! Change this whole damn thing back!"

"First, there's one more visit to make."

Hannibal cringed.


	4. Chapter 4

Once again, the light vanished suddenly. Hannibal looked down at his feet, afraid of what he might see.

"Look, Hannibal."

Sighing, he looked around and was extremely surprised at what he saw. He was standing outside a psychiatric hospital in Dallas, Texas.

"Murdock's in a mental hospital no matter what?"

"Circumstances are quite different this time."

Before Hannibal could ask what the voice meant, he was standing inside a small white room. He looked at the calendar on the wall in front of him. It was 1971.

"What's he doing here? He should be in 'Nam."

Hannibal turned to look around the room.

"Murdock!"

There was no response from the thin, pale man laying on the bed. Murdock stared straight ahead as if he didn't hear Hannibal.

The door to the room opened and a nurse came in. "Oh, hello!"

"Hi."

"I'm so glad you've come to visit HM! He hasn't had any visitors since his grandparents passed on."

She sat Murdock up as if he didn't weigh anything. And by the looks of him, he didn't. She began washing his face. He continued to stare ahead, mouth open and drooling.

"Are you a relative, sir?"

"Yes, ma'am. But I hadn't seen him since he's been, like this."

"Poor man. I've read his files, he had so much going for him. He was taking flying lessons, and was about to graduate high school."

Hannibal was worried about what the answer to his question would be. "What exactly happened?"

"His father found out where he was. Seems that the father blamed HM for the death of the mother. When HM's grandfather found him, he had been beaten so bad that the grandfather didn't recognize him. Apparently, the father had beat him with a chain, hoping to kill him. Instead it left him like he is now."

Hannibal looked down at the shell of a man. Murdock made no indications of hearing or seeing them. It was like he wasn't there at all.

After the nurse left, Hannibal carefully picked up Murdock and held him. The man didn't weigh hardly anything. Hannibal could feel practically every bone in his body. Murdock continued to stare ahead with vacant eyes.

Hannibal looked up at the ceiling. "What happens to Murdock?"

"He remains alone at the hospital until his death in a year."

"I didn't want any of this!"

"You said you did. You said that they would be better off if they had their real dads instead of you."

"I take it back! Please change things back to how they were!"

"What have you learned from this?"

"What are you, a schoolteacher? Just change it back!"

The voice laughed. "All in good time."

Murdock and the hospital vanished in the bright light. Hannibal squinted as he looked around at the bright nothingness.

"All right, all right! I learned that things are best the way they are!"

"That is true, but not the answer I was looking for. I wanted you to see that, just because you're not their 'real dad' doesn't mean that you didn't have an impact on their lives for the better. You see, when Face, BA, and Murdock wrote 'Happy Father's Day, Dad' in that card, they meant it."

Hannibal thought a minute. "I think I understand what you mean. Being a father and being a dad isn't necessarily the same thing. You can father a child and not be a dad to them, and you can be a dad to someone that you didn't father."

"Now you've got it."


	5. Chapter 5

Hannibal was almost afraid of what he would find when the light vanished. He slowly opened his eyes. Face and Murdock were asleep in one bed, and BA was asleep in the other. Just like they were when he left.

Hannibal grinned at them. "I'm back, guys!"

Murdock moaned as he woke up. "Back from where, Colonel?"

"Never mind, Murdock. You just rest."

"M'kay." Murdock rolled over and went back to sleep.

Hannibal walked over to the beds. He made sure their blankets were tucked in. After watching his men for a moment like a proud parent, he went back to his chair and sat down.

Lovingly, Hannibal picked up the Father's Day card beside him. "Thanks for the chance you gave me, whoever you were. I really appreciate it!"

"Hannibal?" Hannibal started awake. He hadn't realized that he had dozed off.

"Yeah, Murdock?"

"One of the voices in my head says to tell you 'your welcome'."

Hannibal laughed.

-The End-


End file.
